Grant: Cat. Gr.: STBBI Res.: Beyond HIV/AIDS/Hep. C- STBBI other than HIV/hep. C (gen.)

Healthcare providers determine whether a patient needs treatment, testing, and education around sexually transmitted infections (STIs) based on how at risk of STIs they perceive them to be. To assess risk, providers commonly ask patients how many sexual partners someone has had over a certain time frame and whether they used protection. But how does the situation change if a patient participated in group sex (engaged with multiple sexual partners at the same event)? To accurately assess STI risk, a provider would not only need to know how many partners and whether they used protection, but also whether they used new barriers (such as condoms) with each partner during group sex. Despite the importance of this information, qualitative data from group sex participants indicated that many did not disclose their group sex participation to providers because they perceived their provider(s) to be judgmental and/or their provider(s) did not ask them questions directly about group sex. Through this project, we will investigate how often patients disclose their group sex participation to providers and why and what barriers providers face in providing STI and other care to group sex participants. We will do so through a bilingual Canada-wide survey of group sex participants and conducting focus groups with sexual healthcare providers. This work will be conducted by a multidisciplinary research team working closely with an established community advisory board of group sex participants. We will use our findings to develop a guide for healthcare practitioners on providing STI care for group sex participants. Group sex takes many forms (e.g., threesomes, organized events) and is engaged in by people across sexual and gender identities (e.g., men who have sex with men, swingers, polyamorous people, heterosexual women and men). We aim to reduce STI transmission across these diverse contexts and identities by shifting the way that providers engage with patients around group sex.